402 Natural History 



are ornamented with the most brilliant patches of color on 

 the head and the under surface. Next to these come the 

 kingfishers, including sixteen species, almost all of which are 

 beautiful, and many are among the most brilliantly-colored 

 birds that exist. 



One of the most curious groups of birds, the Megapodii, or 

 mound-makers, is very abundant in the Moluccas. They are 

 gallinaceous birds, about the size of a small fowl, and generally 

 of a dark ashy or sooty color, and they have remarkably large 

 and strong feet and long claws. They are allied to the "Maleo " 

 of Celebes, of which an account has already been given, but 

 they differ in habits, most of these birds frequenting the scrub- 

 by jungles along the sea-shore, where the soil is sandy, and 

 there is a considerable quantity o{ debris, consisting of sticks, 

 shells, sea-weed, leaves, etc. Of this rubbish the Megapodius 

 forms immense mounds, often six or eight feet high and twen- 

 ty or thirty feet in diameter, which they are enabled to do 

 with comparative ease by means of their large feet, with 

 which they can grasp and throw backward a quantity of ma- 

 terial. In the centre of this mound, at a dej^th of two or three 

 feet, the eggs are deposited, and are hatched by the gentle 

 heat produced by the fermentation of the vegetable matter 

 of the mound. When I first saw these mounds in the island 

 of Lombock I could hardly believe that they were made by 

 such small birds, but I afterward met with them frequently, 

 and have once or twice come uj^on the birds engaged in mak- 

 ing them. They run a few steps backward, grasping a quan- 

 tity of loose material in one foot, and throw it a long way be- 

 hind them. When once properly buried the eggs seem to 

 be no more cared for, the young birds working their way up 

 through the heap of rubbish, and running off at once into the 

 forest. They come out of the egg covered with thick downy 

 feathers, and have no tail, although the wings are fully devel- 

 oped. 



I was so fortunate as to discover a new species (Megapo- 

 dius wallacei), which inhabits Gilolo, Ternate, and Bouru, It 

 is the handsomest bird of the genus, being richly banded with 

 reddish-brown on the back and wings, and it differs from the 

 other species in its habits. It frequents the forests of the in- 

 terior, and comes down to the sea-beach to deposit its eggs; 



